how to kick start your symbolic giving program
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
10 Takeaways to Improve or Kick Start Your Holiday Symbolic Giving
Presented by Michael Johnston and Sheetal Persaud
A virtual tour1. What is symbolic giving – or alternative giving?2. What are the benefits of symbolic giving?3. How can I deal with restricted giving constraints?4. Who are symbolic giving donors?5. What will be more important for marketing?6. How can you integrate your marketing efforts?7. How can personal page fundraising be used for symbolic
giving?8. What are some success stories from organizations big and
small?9. How do you steward and convert symbolic gift donors to
sustained monthly donors?10.How can small and mid-sized organizations afford to
introduce symbolic giving this holiday?
Alternative Gift Catalogues: designated gifts for the ‘every day’ donor?
1 – What is alternative giving?
Proprietary and Confidential 4
The 3 steps to alternative giving?
hjc
Step 1 – Donor selects a giftStep 2 – Donor sends a card to a loved one, friend, colleague, teacher...anyone who they buy gifts forStep 3 – Donor gets a tax receipt for the full amount of their gift
Proprietary and Confidential 5
Primarily ONLINE
hjc
Proprietary and Confidential 6
But also successful OFFLINE
hjc
Proprietary and Confidential 7
2- What are the benefits?
hjc
The everyone gets something mentality
Proprietary and Confidential 8
Donor – Gets that feel good feeling, a tax receipt, and a fun and interactive way of giving
hjc
Proprietary and Confidential 9
Gift Recipient – Gets a feel good feeling too (they didn’t even donate!) and a beautiful ecard or print card
hjc
Proprietary and Confidential 10
YOU – You get fundraising dollars, new donors, old donors giving more, brand awareness amongst gift recipients and media
attention
hjc
Proprietary and Confidential 11
3 – Restricted giving
hjc
I can’t designate my funds two specific programs. How can I adopt alternative giving?
Proprietary and Confidential 12
The industry’s best kept secret – most alternative gift catalogues are UNRESTRICTED GIVING
hjc
Proprietary and Confidential 13hjc
Proprietary and Confidential 14
4 – Who are symbolic gift donors?
hjc
Oprahs’s donors!
These donors want :
•They want the feeling of designation on the smallest gifts
•They want to feel like they really know and understand where there donation is going
•They want to show how philanthropic they are – by sending cards, telling friends and posting things on Facebook.
•They want an easy, attractive, ONLINE giving experience
Proprietary and Confidential 16hjc
Some stats…
Age
< 25 8.9%
25-34 20.3%
35-44 21.6%
45-54 21.8%
55-64 18.6%
65+ 8.8%
Gender
Female 77.7%
Male 22.3%
Coincidentally – Oprah’s prime audience too!
And are these kinds of donors new to the database?
In the case of CHF and Oxfam approximately 85% of the donors
are new!
Proprietary and Confidential 18
5 – How do you market successfully?
hjc
Some less conventional traffic drivers for Oxfam
Celebrity Endorsements
•Coldplay announcement at concerts
• Peter Singer link from fan site
• Minnie Driver speaking on the Ellen Degeneres show (about Oxfam US but drove Canadian traffic)
Proprietary and Confidential 20
City wide flyer postings...
hjc
Proprietary and Confidential 21
Online Media
hjc
22
Holiday features in Print Media
hjc
50% of survey respondents for Oxfam Unwrapped said this article is what drove them to give
Proprietary and Confidential 24
Radio ads
hjc
Proprietary and Confidential 25
Celebrity Endorsement and Videos
hjc
Proprietary and Confidential 26
6- How do you integrate your normal marketing efforts?
hjc
•Insert a print catalogue INTO your normal holiday DM
•Drive traffic with email
•Hijack your website with an ad for your symbolic gift catalogue
•Hand out leaflets in your door2door or mall campaign
27 Proprietary and Confidential
Holiday Eappeal
November 28, 2006
19 gifts in the first 5 days
Use images to convey urgency or convenience of donating online
Subject: A better way to buy gifts this holiday season
28 Proprietary and Confidential
Refer to prior appeals
Reminder #1
December 12, 2006
25 gifts in the next 5 days
29 Proprietary and Confidential
Reminder #2
December 19, 2006
15 gifts within 2 days
Emotional
Convenience
What gift can accomplish
30 Proprietary and Confidential
Reminder #3
December 21, 2006
32 gifts in the 4 days before Christmas
Last Minute Gift-Focus on service to donor
31 Proprietary and Confidential
Donations Per Date
4
7
32
3
1 1 1 12
16
32
4
12
87
20
6
4
1 12
43
2 21
0
5
10
15
20
25
28-N
ov
29-N
ov
30-N
ov
1-Dec
2-Dec
3-Dec
4-Dec
5-Dec
6-Dec
7-Dec
8-Dec
9-Dec
10-D
ec
11-D
ec
12-D
ec
13-D
ec
14-D
ec
15-D
ec
16-D
ec
17-D
ec
18-D
ec
19-D
ec
20-D
ec
21-D
ec
22-D
ec
23-D
ec
24-D
ec
25-D
ec
26-D
ec
27-D
ec
28-D
ec
29-D
ec
30-D
ec
31-D
ec
1-Ja
n2-
Jan3-
Jan
Date
Nu
mb
er
of
Do
na
tio
ns
Donations
First Reminder
Initial Appeal
Second Reminder
Final Reminder
7 - What about personal pages and designated small gifts?
Don’t get me anything this holiday – go to my personal page – and help me reach my goal as a holiday present!!!
Sick Kids holiday personal page fundraising:
No promotion except button on home page
Three weeks on home page during Christmas season
$120,000 in three weeks
They love the idea of having people make their own page and proactively going out to friends, family and colleagues saying ‘no gifts please…’ and asking for donations
Will people begin to make their own pages for a designated purchase e.g. $10,000 piece of equipment or $10,000 for one designated researcher/doctor – and seek small gifts from their friends for their designated personal page solicitation?
8 - Some case studies
Alternative giving can work – for bring brand AND small brands
Case Study 1 – CHF Gifts That matter
Campaign Year 2 – 2006
• Launched October 2006• 520 total donors – 462 in
December• Average gift $96.32• $50,085 total gifts
Campaign Year 3 - 2007
• Introduced year round School Fundraising focused campaign
• Re-launched holiday focused campaign September 2007
• 703 total donors – 544 in December
• Average gift $97.76• $68,725 total gifts
Campaign Year 1 – 2005• Launched October 2005• 592 total donors • Average gift $68.15• $40,256 total gifts
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 310
10
20
30
40
50
60
CHF Gifts That Matter December Donations2006 vs 2007
20062007
Date in December
Num
ber o
f Don
ation
s
Case Study 2 – Oxfam Canada
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 310
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
Oxfam Unwrapped December Donations2006 vs 2007
20062007
Num
ber o
f Don
ation
s
Case Study – Oxfam Canada
Holiday 2006 Holiday 2007 Holiday 2008$0
$50,000$100,000$150,000$200,000$250,000$300,000$350,000$400,000$450,000$500,000
Total Holiday Revenue
Year
Reve
nue
Case Study – Oxfam Canada
Holiday 2006 Holiday 2007 Holiday 20080
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
Number of transactions
Year
Num
ber o
f tra
nsac
tions
Case Study 3 – Canuck Place Children’s Hospice
Canuck Place Children’s HospiceCampaign Year 1 – 2006• Launched December 2006• 42 total donors• Average gift $112.14• $4,710 total giftsCampaign Year 2 - 2007• Year round alternative
giving option• 156 total donors - 69 in
December• Average gift $113.94• $13,840 total gifts• 294% in revenue
Campaign Year 3 - 2008
• Further promotion as a year round alternative giving option
• 154 total donors - 63 in December
• Average gift $118.96• $34,260 total gifts• 247% in revenue
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 310
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Precious Gifts December Donations2006 vs 2007
20062007
Num
ber o
f Don
ation
s
By creating designated gifts – both small and large – Canuck Place has attracted larger gifts from Foundations and from companies.
The ‘commodification’ of what a donor’s dollar can do is getting both larger and smaller gifts
Proprietary and Confidential 46
9 - How do you steward and upgrade your symbolic gift donors?
hjc
Your symbolic gift donors love your brand and can be upgraded
with the right stewardship streams
Proprietary and Confidential 47
Be sure to email and thank your symbolic gift donors after the campaign and let them know how their gifts helped your
organisation
hjc
Proprietary and Confidential 48
Then phone them!
hjc
Proprietary and Confidential 49
CHF called 5000 of their DM, telephone and symbolic gift donors to upgrade the donors to
monthly. The symbolic gift donors converted at a rate 1000% higher than the other two groups!
hjc
What have we learned from CHF and Oxfam’s commitment from these donors?
Use the phone!!!! These donors have joined Oxfam and CHF’s normal monthly giving programs with an average conversion rate of 5-7% from the phone.
These donors feel a personal connection to your organisation – so the personal touch of a phone call really works!
Proprietary and Confidential 51
10 – A technology choice for the mid-sized to small organisation
hjc
Setting up your own symbolic gift catalogue can get expensive. With CharityGiftBag.org an organisation with even a small budget embrace this effective form of giving
Proprietary and Confidential 58hjc
Benefits
•Central hub for many organisations so easy to acquire new donors •CGB led marketing driving traffic to the site to help you acquire donors•Low cost of entry – but still plenty or room for branding, personalisation and YOU get the donor names
www.CharityGiftBag.org
Thank you!